Edeard woke with a start, sitting up in bed, his skin slick with sweat, heart pounding, gulping for breath.

Beside him, Kristabel rose to put her arms around him. 'It's all right my love, she cooed. 'Just a dream.

'Every night, he moaned, for that was what he'd dreamed or been shown since his fall from the Eyrie tower. 'Will this plague ever leave me? I'd willingly rejoin my old dreams in exchange for this curse.

'Old dreams? Kristabel ordered the ceiling to brighten. Perfect white light revealed the maisonette around them.

The sight of it, the normality, immediately made Edeard feel foolish. 'I'm sorry. I always had dreams. But these!

'The souls again?

'Yes, he said weakly. 'I see them rising, and I can't hear the song they're following. So I try and listen, and… He shook his head in annoyance. 'Sorry.

'Stop apologising. I'm just worried for you, that's all.

'I'll be all right, he flopped down, and glanced at the narrow window. 'What time is it?

'Hours before dawn.

'Huh! It might not be a dream then. I always visualize the city at night.

Kristabel rolled on to her side, where she gave him a concerned look. 'Can you farsight any souls right now?

'Not sure. He closed his eyes, and stretched out his farsight. The dark shadows of city buildings slipped through his perception, fizzing with the sparkle of slumbering minds. Makkathran's all-encompassing thoughts were easy to discern, pervading the structure of everything, but strongest beneath the streets and canals, down amid the levels where pipes and tunnels and strange threads of energy wove around each other. They were faint, elusive even, but tangible enough. Of the souls which he knew must be there, he could find no trace. 'Nothing, he said in defeat.

'It's not a contest. You haven't lost anything.

'But I've sensed them twice. Edeard stopped to think. 'I was close to the body each time, very close.

'What are you saying? You want to go to a hospice?

'No, he lied.

Kristabel gave him a suspicious glance. 'Humm.

'I wonder if I should see the Pythia again. He didn't like the idea. Their last meeting hadn't been particularly pleasant for him. During the gentle questioning that had gone on for what seemed like hours, he'd felt awkward and defensive. The authority she possessed made him feel like a small child who'd committed some transgression then been hauled up before a loving but stern parent.

'What would she be able to teach you? Kristabel asked, with more than a touch of scorn.

'Nothing, I suppose. After that unsatisfactory meeting, he'd carefully read the Lady's scriptures again. It was the first time he'd read them properly since Sunday lessons at the Ashwell Church with Mother Lorellan. All he'd ever done then was learn passages by rote, never knowing their meaning.

Re-reading the scriptures was something of a revelation. They were hardly a religious text, rather an imprecise diary written in a very flowery prose, followed by what amounted to her thoughts on how to lead a better, more fulfilling life. Only the Skylords bound the two sections together. Vast airborne creatures who sailed sedately between Querencia and the nebulas; a migration whose purpose was unknown, but served to guide human souls to the Heart. However, according to the Lady, only souls that had achieved what she termed 'fulfilment' would be taken.

Reading through her homilies, he couldn't help but think of an elderly spinster aunt telling her relatives about how to be a good family. Be polite, be nice, be considerate, be charitable. Or maybe life was just very different back then — though he suspected not, judging by the diary part. At least that was interesting, though it only began as Rah caught his first glimpse of Makkathran from the mountains. All the Lady ever said of the ship that brought them to this universe was that Rah was leading people away from the turmoil which followed their landing. Beyond that, the past was never mentioned. She was admiring of Rah's perseverance as he broke through the crystal wall, making the three city gates. The wonder they all experienced that first time they sailed into the port seeing a fully built, yet deserted, city where they could make their home. How, as they floated along Great Major Canal that day, a Skylord was soaring above the towers in Eyrie. How it agreed to guide the soul of a dying friend to the Heart which lay beyond Odin's Sea.

The Lady went on to describe the founding of the city Councils, and the emergence of the Guilds, and how other refugees from the fallen ships sought them out, while others remained outside the walls and grew jealous. The petty and bitter disputes between city and country over whose law should prevail She never saw the end of those quarrels, the final treaty to enshrine the rights of both provinces and city; and her disappointment in the seemingly interminable squabbling was reflected in her later writing; the years when the Skylord visits became less frequent. When she asked them why they were abandoning humans they told her it was because people were incomplete, their souls too immature to be taken to the Heart. The Lady felt shame for her species. Humbled that they would wither and die before the Heart accepted them, she devoted the remainder of her life to elevating humanity, to installing a sense of purpose and dignity into life through her teachings. Along with a now-ailing Rah and the last few Skylords to visit Makkathran she cajoled the city into creating the central Church in Eyre. When it was done, when she saw the embryonic Church swelling up out of the ground, she joined Rah on the top of Eyrie's highest tower, and let her soul slip from her body, so they could both embrace the guidance of the Skylord and travel into the Heart together.

No Skylord had been seen above Querencia ever since.

'That's good, Kristabel said. 'I don't want you to turn to people like her for answers. They're the past. If you're the person I think you are, the one I believe in, you make your own decisions.

'Wow. Edeard stared at her, almost intimidated by her impassioned expression. 'I'll do my best, he promised.

'I know you will. That's why I love you. With that she cuddled up against him, ordering the illumination down low again. 'And don't think I haven't noticed what you've done to this maisonette, either, she added.

'Er…

'It's all right. I haven't told anyone. This is Makkathran, even you should know by now never to reveal your full abilities.

'I do.

'Until you have to, of course.

'Right.

She grinned in the darkness. Rather surprisingly, Edeard fell asleep again. This time, with her beside him, it was untroubled by dreams or visions of any kind.

In the morning, Kristabel got up as dawn began to produce a glow in the sky over the Donsori Mountains. She dressed quickly, and kissed Edeard goodbye as he lay drowsily on the bed.

'I'll see you in a little while, she said quietly, and slipped out. Edeard followed her with his farsight as she walked off down the street. Her gondola was waiting in the pool that formed the top end of Flight Canal and the bottom of Arrival Canal. A ge-eagle from Jeavons station circled overhead, watching carefully, as she was taken to her family mansion. She would be let in to the ziggurat by a small side door, and appear at her family's breakfast table pretending she'd spent the night in her room, and every relative would maintain the pretence.

Stupid etiquette, Edeard grumbled to himself as he started to dress. His mauve cotton shirt had sleeves which barely came over his shoulders, while the trousers were the short ones he used for playing football in the park, ending well above his knees. The cobbler had shaken his head in dismay at the shoes Edeard commissioned; complaining they were little more than lace-up slippers with thick soles. But the strange clothing was perfect for Edeard's now-daily run, as he'd known it would be.